Re: [css3-flexbox] getting multiline flexbox back into the spec

At 13:56 +1000 6/7/11, Alan Gresley wrote:

>On 7/06/2011 5:36 AM, Eric A. Meyer wrote:
>>  At 19:22 +0000 6/6/11, Alex Mogilevsky wrote:
>>
>>>  Specifying direction of flexbox has nothing to do with specifying
>>>  direction of text flow within these boxes, therefore text direction
>>>  properties should not be used for that purpose. Flexbox should have
>>>  its own way to specify its layout direction.
>>
>>  I agree with this 110%.
>
>Eric, do you want another DOCTYPE switch scenario to surface in the 
>next decade due to incorrect concept of direction?

    You lost me there.  I don't see how having layout order be 
potentially independent of writing direction triggers a switch 
scenario.  Has absolute positioning raised that possibility and I 
missed it?  Will grid layout similarly do so?  Will regions?

>Base direction is the master of direction. Flexbox should not have 
>it own concept to specify its layout direction.

    Why not?  As an example, 'box-direction: reverse' (to draw an 
example from the 2009 spec) defines a layout direction different than 
the standard layout direction.  I've used it and it doesn't threaten 
the writing direction.  It just reverses the layout of the boxes from 
what would be the default.
    Similarly, 'box-ordinal-group' lets you throw boxes hither and 
thither within the overall flexbox, completely independent of writing 
or other layout direction, and I regard that as a good.  It's useful 
for, say, placing a "sticky" post at the top of a forum while 
preserving chronological ordering in the source, or for switching 
around column order.
    I would find it deeply odd to have to use a writing-direction 
property to define layout order.  That would be like having to use 
'text-align' to center element boxes.

-- 
Eric A. Meyer (eric@meyerweb.com)     http://meyerweb.com/

Received on Tuesday, 7 June 2011 13:05:09 UTC